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If it’s been awhile since you’ve brushed up on your geology and earth science, here’s a bit of a refresher: TheCambrian Period marked a time in the earth’s history when animals started popping up all around the planet. It’s often referred to as theCambrian Explosion because of the sheer diversity of animals that were ultimately found in the fossil record from this period.

In other words, a lot of new animals appeared on the earth in a relatively short period of time.

But all periods have endpoints. And it appears as though tech’s Cambrian Explosion is rapidly winding down.

The explosion in startups occurred because smaller companies could be formed quickly and cheaply. It was possible for them to innovate and iterate at a rate larger companies could not keep up with. As technology continues to evolve, however, it appears as though these larger organizations are getting better at innovation—to the point where we can sense the end of this period of explosive technology startup growth.

How did startups take over the world in the first place? Why is everyone and their brother working on a startup now? The Cambrian Explosion of technology was driven primarily by five factors:

Cloud computing. Instead of having to spend a fortune building their own dedicated computing infrastructure, startups leveragedthe power of the cloud. This enabled them to use as many or as few resources as they needed.

Open source software. Thanks to the open source movement—which continues to gain more and more steam—startups were able to both use technologies and build upon existing code. This allowed for much more rapid initial development.

Mobility. While many older organizations prefer to keep their workers in the office, startups quickly embraced mobility andits associated benefits. As a result, their workers were able to get things done anytime from anywhere—making them more productive.

Scarce talent. When tech startups first came on the scene, there weren’t many people who knew how to build great platforms. Those that did were not going to work for a paycheck, but wanted a payday. However, now everyone knows how lucrative tech can be. There are a number of platforms, likeCodecademy and coding bootcamps, that enable rapid education in software development. As a result, talent is no longer as scarce.

Agile Methodologies. The idea of rapid development and deployment introduced by the agile method allowed companies to release features quickly and often. SaaS solutions allowed them to constantly update. Agile thinking allowed companies to respond and react more quickly and effectively to changes in technology, markets, or competition.

While some larger companies initially hesitated to adopt newer technologies, many have made use of cloud computing and open source solutions. They’ve also embraced the distributed workforce and agile methodology. And finally, the talent scarcity is abating.